Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Oscarwatch: Bill Murray

I saw the last hour of the Academy Awards, you know, the hour that mattered. I saw the Best Actor presentation. Sean Penn was nominated for "Mystic River," Johnny Depp was nominated for "Pirates of the Caribbean," and Bill Murray was nominated for "Lost in Translation." Some other less-interesting people were also nominated. Anyway, I don't have to tell you that I was rooting for Bill Murray and anti-rooting for Johnny Depp. I mean, come on. You've got consumate actors like Sean Penn up against Depp jumping around in a pirate's costume? Please.

Anyway, as you may know by now, Sean Penn won for "Mystic River." I never saw that movie, so I can't vouch for whether he deserved it. What I can say is that they did the split-screen where they show the other actors responding to their losses. The other actors took it in stride, cheering and smiling...except for Depp and Murray. Both were visibly stunned and upset. Depp, I don't care about. If he really believed he could win, then he's an idiot. But my heart broke for Murray. He was so disappointed that after Penn's speech, Billy Crystal came on stage and spoke to Murray, saying "Don't go, Bill. It's okay. We love you, anyway." The audience cheered and Bill tried to smile and make a joke out of it, but I couldn't help feeling for the guy. Here was his chance to finally prove himself as an actor and he lost. I need to go see that movie.

Update: After I wrote this post, I read an article at IMDB that portrays Murray in a less positive light...more like a sore loser. Oh, well, I still want to see that movie.